Saturated Pork Chops

Posted April 19, 2010

Find more about dinner , brining , pork chops

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When I served these, Michael actually shook his head and said, "I can't believe I didn't eat meat all those years." As it is, though, we really only eat meat about once a week.

Juniper and bay in the mortar. The bay didn't really change all that much in there, fyi. But the juniper got nice and crushed.

Pork chops, seasoned and ready to bed down for the night.

Well rested and ready to be unwrapped and browned in a pan.

Comme ca.

I pretend to be helpful, cutting Ben's meat off the bone for him; really it's so that I can fall into an ecstatic fit of bone-gnawing.

Ben was very swoony about the pork. Birdy, meanwhile, contentedly ate an artichoke.

So, brining. In a word: ew. I will happily pour vinegary pickling liquid over any size and shape of cucumber, and I love a stinkily fermenting crock of submerged saurkraut. But raw meat in liquid? It just gives me the heeby jeebies. It could be because of the time I was pregnant with Birdy, when I opened a friend's fridge to find a collection of chicken breasts in a plastic pitcher of liquid, like so many formaldehyde-preserved brains; given that this was a moment of my life when I would have barfed had you so much as offered me a Mento, the sighting of the pitcherful of poultry did not end well.

Or it could be that every time I brine a turkey for some or other holiday, I end up staggering around with a gigantic plastic bucket of turkey, the turkefied water slopping all over my legs, along with the memories of whoever last barfed into that particular bucket. And then I have to try to figure out how to leave it outside without cats and raccoons getting into it (flipped milk crate with a weight on top). And then, the next day, I have to stagger it back inside and extract the ginormous bird from it without getting the turkefied water all over me and the kitchen floor. Ew.

Which is not to say that eating brined foods is not a delightful experience, because it is. They're beautifully moist and seasoned, and they're not inclined to dry out and turn into tasteless sawdusty shreds that you have to salt and salt at the table. So, here's the perfect compromise: a dry cure. You can do this with any meat, and pretty much any meat will benefit from a heavy overnight salting. You might even try to get in the habit of salting all your meat when you first bring it home from the shop, before you even get it into your refrigerator: just open the package, sprinkle liberally with salt, and wrap it back up. Even if you don't know what you're planning to do with it next. Even if it's chicken or stew meat or ground beef.

Here, regular old pork chops are sprinkled with a mixture of salt, sugar, and aromatics, then popped into the fridge overnight to reconsider their own blandness, like a kind of meaty time out. By the next day, they're ready to commit to being delicious. Easy peasy--but when you go to cook them, you'll see that they look a little bit ham-like from their overnight cure, and they will be sweet and savory and succulent and flavorful, with a delightful inclination to be self-gravying in their own juices. In sum: delicious. Also: adaptable. If bay and juniper aren't your aromatic cup of tea, try other herbs or spices and see how it goes. And how it will go is well. You'll see.

p.s. I worry, as I grow more addled with the passing of time, that I'm like that great aunt who keeps telling you the same stories over and over at every holiday meal. So I googled "'Catherine Newman' chicken pitcher" and got 442 hits. Wow. I need to get a life.

p.p.s. If you've ever eaten brined turkey at our house, I'm sorry you had to read this. I swear we wash that bucket really, really well.

Saturated Pork Chops
Serves 4-6
Active time: 15 minutes; total time: overnight plus 15 minutes

I love bay leaves and the gin-like flavor of juniper berries (which you can buy in the bulk-spice section of Whole Foods), but feel free to swap in other favorite aromatics (rosemary, say, or black pepper) or to skip them altogether and just go with the salt/sugar rub. It's the overnight salting that's really the key to this recipe. And if this whole idea really, really speaks to you? You might consider buying this cookbook.

1 bay leaf, torn into small pieces
1 teaspoon juniper berries
1 tablespoon kosher salt (or half as much table salt)
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons oil or lard
4 pork chops

In a mortar and pestle (okay, that should really be: "in a mortar, with a pestle") or a spice grinder, smash together the juniper berries and bay leaf until the juniper is crushed up, then add the salt and sugar and smash/grind some more until everything is pretty well blended (I end up with large-ish pieces of bay leaves, but it really doesn't matter). Sprinkle this mixture generously on each side of each chop (use all of it), then stack the chops on a plate, wrap them tightly, and refrigerate overnight or up to 2 days.

Take the chops out of the fridge an hour before you plan to cook them, and then spend that hour calming your excited pets. Now, in a very large frying pan or griddle, heat the oil over medium-high heat, then cook the chops, 4 or 5 minutes per side, until they are deeply browned and cooked through: if you press a chop, it should feel firmish and like it has a not-squishy center, but try not to cook them too far past the point of doneness. If at any point the chops seem as though they'll burn before they cook through, turn the heat down. My chops were under an inch thick, but if yours are very thick, it might even make sense to brown them for a few minutes on each side, and then finish them in a 400 oven for another 5-10 minutes.

Allow the chops to rest on a platter for 5 minutes, then serve them, along with their accumulated juices, to your happy diners. Unless one of your diners is the near-vegetarian Birdy, who will be less happy than politely abstaining.

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Saturated Pork Chops

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by Catherine Newman

Catherine Newman cooks for the family

Dalai Mama Dishes

Catherine Newman cooks for the family

Saturated Pork Chops

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